Abstract

Experiences of food, meals, and eating that are nourishing, enjoyable, and nutritious arecrucial for older adults who are seeking to maintain their health and wellbeing while ‘ageingin place’. Food insecurity poses a threat to these aspirations. Although existing research hasproduced useful insights into food insecurity in older adults, it has not always fully engagedwith the highly subjective, complex, and dynamic nature of the phenomenon.The thesis addresses these gaps in knowledge by applying philosophical perspectives fromphenomenological ethnography to explore implicit meanings in older adults’ experiences offood, meals, and eating, and then consider their significance for understandings of foodsecurity and insecurity in older adults. The thesis takes a phenomenological view of humanbeings as embedded in lifeworlds characterised by meaningful actions and experiences,including those involving food.Phenomenological ethnographic methods of repeated in-depth interviews, walkinginterviews, and observation were conducted in the home environments of 21 communitydwellingolder adults, aged between 72 and 90 years, in rural Tasmania, Australia. Casebasedanalyses informed biographical sketches of these older adults’ rich, varied, and oftenchallenging lives. The main findings were generated by thematic analyses and pertain tofour dimensions of the phenomenological lifeworld – subjective, intersubjective, placebased,and temporal.Exploring subjective dimensions revealed these older adults as highly engaged with foodand life. Exploring intersubjective dimensions revealed how older adults’ eating experiencesare infused with their social identities and relationships. Exploring place dimensionsrevealed how older adults’ complex, deep, and nuanced relationships with different placesinform their food experiences. Finally, exploring temporal dimensions revealed how timepermeates older adults’ eating lives, whether in terms of quotidian activities or the grandsweep of life from childhood to old age. The thesis considers these findings and their significance, and generates newunderstandings of food security and insecurity in older adults. Perspectives frominterpretative phenomenology, anthropology, sociology, and social gerontology are woven together to inform a theoretical argument for an interrelationship between food securityand ontological security in older adults’ lives. The contribution of the doctoral thesis lies indeveloping a more in-depth and substantial theoretical perspective on food security andinsecurity in older adults, which has implications for policy and practice. The thesis revealsrural older adults who are engaging with food and life with considerable perseverance,resilience, and agency, even in the face of bodily and social contingencies of ageing.